For decades American universities and colleges enjoyed a boom in demand that led them to believe that market forces didn’t apply to them. The government inflated the demand by handing out loans to any young person who wanted to attend, regardless of academic ability. Students avidly competed to get into elite colleges on the assumption that a degree would guarantee a good job; and colleges in turn sought to boost their ratings by building ever-swankier facilities and offering discounts to the best students. In recent years, the annual tuition costs of many colleges soared past $50,000 a year. But with stubbornly high, a growing number of students are deciding that a college diploma is not such a great investment after all. (Adapted from an article by Michael Barone in The Washington Examiner)

Thus we have the bursting of yet another bubble. Universities and colleges have expanded in bricks and mortar with a frenzy, and the resulting academic buildings cannot be used for anything else. On top of that, university administrators have incomes worthy of bankers. They are, in short, businesses (except for a few elite institutions) run by people ignorant of business, but claiming business salaries. Add to that shameful grade inflation and ridiculous emphasis on college sport, and you are witnessing another monument in human folly.

Epicurus would no doubt tell us to go slowly, to grow organically, to concentrate above all on quality, not quantity. Not everyone can benefit from further education, nor can that education guarantee success.